Hello all! I will be travelling with my family to the L.A area for the Rose Bowl game on January 1st. It'll be my first time spending the holidays in California, my family and I have no clue what to do. Are there any major events etc for New Years Eve? Things we must see or do? Also, is there a lot to do in the Pasadena area? Pardon my lack of knowledge on the area!

I'm looking forward to any ideas you all have for spending New Years in Pasadena. Also, any restaurant recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Go Bucky!!

So we beat on against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Firstly, let me ask where you are staying? Is it in Pasadena which is a small quiet corner of the world, or somewhere else?
LA is simply huge metro area (4,000+ sq miles) made up of over 100 individual cities.

In general however, LA tends to have more subdued New Year events, with people mostly spending it with family and friends. Yes many restaurants do offer specials that night, often at pricey $100+ per person. Also with virtually 100,000 tourist in town for the Rose Bowl, many entities in the immediate area also charge premiums.

Not sure where we are staying at the moment, although we may be staying with another family whom my parents are good friends with.

Are there ever any fireworks displays in the area near Pasadena? (I know L.A is a vast area but it sounds like we will be sticking close to Pasadena. I do apologize for being so unfamiliar with Los Angeles). As far as restaurants what would you recommend in general? Not necessarily for dinner on New Years Eve. In-N-Out is already on my list because I can't get it back in Minneapolis.

So we beat on against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

I know the Queen Mary in Long Beach host an annual fireworks show. You don’t need to actually attend an event or restaurants on the ship as its clearly visible in other nearby areas. Downtown Long Beach does have some good sized entertainment, restaurant and shopping area down by the water so that could be an option to hang out at.

Otherwise Universal Studios has fire works and outdoor live music at their City Walk entertainment complex for New Years.

Neither is exactly around the corner from Pasadena, but Universal is the closer of the two.

If you want to attend a night-club all the big Hollywood ones have New Years events certainly, but depending on how trendy they are the pricing will be appropriately on the high side.

For food, well for me atleast one of the strengths in LA is its extremely diverse ethnic base. So we have lots of great global cuisine from Thai, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Ethiopian, to Latin American off course.

There are some good ones around -- a local restaurant chain called Yard House often has good seafood (along with 100 beers on tap), then there are many good local places up and down the coast. Additionally there are some very good Asian seafood places in heavily Chinese areas like Monterey Park.

Again its very much dependent on where you are staying, and ability to drive around.

I used to live near the parade route on Colorado bl. and the New Years eve party the night before the parade was the thing to do back in high school.
Millions of people camp out along the side walk. People bring sleeping bags and even furniture and party all night long. Car do cruise at low speeds along the parade route as well.

That is pretty much it for New Years down in LA.

There is a decent seafood place named Cameroons on Colorado bl. along the parade route.
I'm sure there have been some newer more expensive seafood places that's opened in Old Town Pasadena.